The downfall of an empire begins with internal strife. Dr. Lucio Tan’s empire is no different from the dynasties of Imperial China. Trusted advisers are axed by the emperor as advised by his greed mongering administrators. Lucio is no different from these Emperors. He who foments distrust will fall heavily under those who are after his wealth. Dr. Tan’s feud with brother Mariano Tanenglian has earned him the ire of most of the Filipino-Chinese community. Will he choose the path of righteousness?

Wednesday

Lucio ‘Bong’ Tan Jr. spreads his wings

FOR a change, there is something positive brewing among the various contending factions of the extended Lucio Tan family.

The publicized feud between the taipan and his brother Mariano, as well as Tan’s hospitalization after suffering a slip while alighting from a helicopter, have apparently served as a wake-up call for his eldest son, Lucio Jr.

The San Francisco-educated Tan has been seen holding a series of meetings with HSBC Philippine treasurer and head of capital markets Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso, along with MRC Allied chairman Benjamin Bitanga.

According to the grapevine, the young Tan plans to raise P2 billion for a still undisclosed project and has apparently been consulting Bitanga, who had sold to the elder Tan the shell company of what is now the publicly-listed MacroAsia, on how to best raise the sizable amount.

Rather than compete and jostle with fellow siblings for a piece of the Tan empire, the 43-year-old son, if the grapevine is to be believed, apparently wants the P2-billion capital that he planned to raise to start his own little kingdom independent of his 75-year-old father’s airline, banking, real estate, tobacco, hotel, and school conglomerate.

It was not immediately clear how the planned capital-raising exercise will hew with the recent appointment of the junior Tan as president of Tanduay Distillery.